Football Development Quotes

I would welcome sitting for a year. Being able to experience what the NFL is like, settling into a new city. You get a house situated, there's marketing, there's stuff going on you're not used to. Being able to have a year to learn the offense, learn the speed of the game, and coming out in Year 2, you could focus all on football.

I learnt a lot of things in Holland, as people have great vision there. It improved me as a player and a person. I had very good coaches that wanted to play offensive football and dominate games and be better than their opponent. You also need to play for your team-mates as well as yourself; then, afterwards, you can show your own quality.

Football develops, it becomes quicker, players develop as athletes.

I feel like I've got a lot of football things I need to work on to have that success that I want to have in this league.

I'd always thought Australia was a rugby country, but football is really developing here, and Juve are extremely popular.

I started playing full-equipment football when I was 6 years old. My mom actually got me started in it.

As a kid, I mostly played as a No 10. When I was really young, I played as a striker. But I grew a lot when I was older, and when I was 15, 16, I had a big growth, and so I changed a little bit and became slower.

It's very sad that Tanzania is a poor football country. If elected, I promise to put this country on the world football map. I will make sure we produce our own Okochas, El Hadji Dioufs and Zinedine Zidanes here.

Like so many of the players, I started at La Masia at the age of 11. I can't ever imagine not playing for Barcelona, let alone not playing soccer for a career. I don't ever want to play anywhere else.

I think as a central defender you grow as a player.

From United's point of view, it is always difficult to tell just when a young footballer is going to mature into a first-class professional ready to play at the highest level, but the story of how Pogba slipped away from United has more than one strand to it.

He is an example of a La Masia player. Technically he is unbelievable.

Obviously, everyone looks at whether we bring young footballers into the first team, that's one of the goals. But I wouldn't discard someone who is successful in life, that's big. The hall of fame in the academy should be a wide variety of stories.

If I could, I'd change the way I came up through the football ranks. I'd love to have had an academy life the way the boys have it. I think female footballers would be so much better for having that opportunity, and we'd be more effective because we would be better players.

It's always special to return to Real Madrid because I've always considered it as being home. It's where I grew up, learned my trade, and the club has played a big part in who I am today.

Playing for England, it's a massive honour to wear the shirt anyway, but to come and play at Wembley Stadium, in terms of how women's football has developed, it's a massive opportunity.

I'm a great believer in the lower leagues, the pyramid system, but there is mileage in having B-teams in England with young players playing competitively.

There are many ways to grow football-wise. You go slow or are pushed to go faster, otherwise you get left behind. For me, there would be trouble in stopping learning.

If you win the Champions League, you become known across the globe, but the World Cup has always thrown up new stars and developments.

Burnley Football Club helped me mature from a boy to a man and I can't thank them everyone from the club enough, from the board to the staff at the training ground and the staff at the club.

There are a lot of programs, a lot of teams now that have the backing of federations, the growth of the game domestically. You see this with Holland; you see this with Italy. It's a matter of time. I had to leave my home country to go and experience the game. Now, it's delightful that these countries are actively supporting women's football.

Kids are learning to play. That's why we're seeing an emergence. That's why we're seeing the Under-17s and Under-20s doing better in international football.

I was a million miles from being a Premier League player. You see some people, at 18 they are ready. At 21, I wasn't. Physically nowhere near.

I can see that the UAE is growing a lot as a football country, and there is plenty of opportunity to keep going and improve.

David Beckham is a patriot, and I am sure he will help in any way he can. Beckham needs to be part of any future plans to remould the England set-up. Beckham and players like him need to be integrated into the set-up in the same way that the Germans take on board former players from Beckenbauer to Rummenigge.